Re: Arcserve restore of Oracle database

> >
> > Thanks for your posts. It is very informative. I however am just
> > trying this out on our lab network which contains almost the same
> > infrastructure as our production network.
> >
> > What I want to do though is much simpler - I want to NOT use Oracle
> > backup agents. I simply want to use Arcserve 9's Universal Client
> > Agent so I can perform a complete OS-level backup with Disaster
> > Recovery. A separate Oracle backup is performed on the server itself
> > using Oracle scripts (this is not my area so I can't provide detailed
> > info). The restore is 2 parts - the OS-level restore and then the
> > restore from the Oracle backup.
> >
> > The trouble is, as soon as I do a remote install of the Universal
> > Client Agent for Windows, I can no longer start Oracle even though all
> > the Oracle-related services are supposedly running.
> >
> > I have Oracle 9i on a Win2K Std. Server with SP3. Any help on this
> > would be appreciated.
> >
> > By the way, during the remote install, Arcserve automatically selects
> > the Oracle agents in addition to the Universal Client agent. I simply
> > de-selected the Oracle agents since I did not want to install them.
>
> I'm not sure whether this approach is advisable.
> First of all: your O/S backup will be worthless, as it is conducted on an
> *open* database. You will answer your scripts will be responsible for the
> Oracle backup, but stil you will be in the situation where you backup a
> substantial part of the disks *2* times, where the O/S backup will be
> worthlesss. I would simply refuse to do this. The Arcserve product should
> work, building own scripts would cost more than the price the Arcserve
> agent, they won't be tightly integrated, there won't be any backup history
> etc , etc. and I expect this will also be less reliable.
> In short: your approach stinks.
>
> 'No longer start Oracle' The problem with such a blank statement is you only
> state 'It doesn't work' and people here should look in their crystall ball,
> where you so far failed to do the obvious
> - check the eventlog
> - check oradim.log
> - check the alert log of the instance.

Thanks for your prompt reply. The existing approach (using NTBackup) actually works. We are able to perform a complete system recovery including the Oracle database(s)in our disaster recovery tests. Of course, there are still lost transactions - the ones that did not make the OS/Oracle backup - but otherwise, the results are good. With regards to duplicate backups of files, well, the backup skips open files so the backup isn't that redundant.

I agree with you - having the backup disjointed has big disadvantages. At least though, the Oracle backup and the OS backup are in one tape. One thing I'd like to stress out is that I am NOT an Oracle DBA and I know very little about Oracle technologies. I am but a lowly systems admin delegated the task of backing up our Oracle systems. Our very busy (overworked) developers would be willing to help me once they are done with application development. In the meantime, I have to find a way to backup their work without interrupting their work. In short, I'm doing the best that I can with the limited time and knowledge that I possess.

To get the Oracle Agents to work, I would imagine that I will need the developers' involvement to ensure that all the databases are backed up, etc. But if I cannot even get the Universal Windows Agent to work just by itself, I'm quite concerned with going a step further. With regards to "no longer start Oracle", I am unsure how to articulate this further. I have checked the OS event logs and found it to be very uninformative. The oradim logs and alert logs - these I did not check since these are unknown to me (thanks for pointing them out). The only way I can gauge the Oracle services failure is that prior to installing the Universal Agent, everything worked and no one made any other change. Perhaps there is a conflict with the ports used by certain Oracle services and the Arcserve agents?

One other critical piece of information I neglected to mention - I am running a centralized backup system using a DLT library attached to a host backup server. Received on Sun Jun 22 2003 - 12:37:05 CDT